Tag: vegan soup

Top o’ the breezy, more than likely, snowing- somewhere-if-you-live-in-the-Adirondacks noon to ya’! Today is an excellent day to hole up inside and try something new to cook. (The wind is a-howlin’ so fiercely that my curtains are swaying a bit as I write this)

Since I haven’t posted a recipe in some time, I thought today would be a perfect day to do my first ever critique about a product. I have had my eyes on various Bob’s Red Mill products lately, curious to try the veggie soup mix. I picked some up a couple days ago at my local grocery store.

As I was starting to make the soup this afternoon, I realized, just how on-the-thrift (I don’t like the word “cheap”, it implies improper quality) that this soup mix is to make a decent sized meal. I picked up up for less than $5, so I’ll just call it an even five. I used two cups of this:

…and added it to 8 cups of water, as per the instructions (4 cups of water per 1 cup of mix) and brought to a simmer.

Now this is where I went wrong, not cooking the mix long enough. The instructions on the package suggest 30-50 minutes and while I cooked closer to the 30 minutes, I recommend cooking closer to the 50 minutes, so that some of the peas don’t come out crunchy like mine did today.

I also added a 28 oz. can of stewed tomatoes, a half a pound of dry macaroni elbows, and a 15 oz. can of black beans (slightly but not totally drained), which I added about ten minutes before the soup would be done. I also seasoned with curry powder, salt, pepper, basil, oregano, celery seed, nutritional yeast, and two teaspoons of Better than Bouillon (the veggie one). A little of this soup mix and what I added goes a long way as you can see here:

I used a large pot to make this soup, and the two bowls taken out for lunch, hardly made a dent in it:

Let’s do a brief run-down of how thrifty this meal was to make. I used about half of the soup mix, so we’ll call that $2.50. Add $1 each for the can of tomatoes and the can of beans, and then 50 cents for the half a pound of macaroni. All together, that is about $5 for the cost of the whole pot of soup, which easily has 6-10 bowls of soup in it, depending on one’s appetite. It is a common misconception that eating a plant-based, cruelty free diet is expensive. I don’t know about any of you all, but I think $5 to make a whole pot of delicious, nutrient dense soup is worth every cruelty-free penny!

Speaking of healthy, this soup is packed with iron, 18 grams of protein combined per serving of the soup mix and macaroni, and 20% iron, not to mention the plethora of b-vitamins, antioxidents, and additional protein and iron of the tomatoes and the beans added.

Next time you are looking to make an easy soup that you can doctor up with your own veggie goodies, pick up a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix, and see what soup delight you can concoct!

Soak beans overnight. Prepare potatoes and carrots and mix with 6 cups of water into big pot. Add sprinkles of curry poweder (I used several), basil and oregano (a few sprinkles) and celery seed (used sparingly, just a couple sprinkles). Bring to boil, then add boillion to dissolve. Simmer on low until carrots and potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Serve over your favorite rice or enjoy alone. Nutritious, delicious, and animal free!

Apologies for the not-so-great picture of this soup…I had to take this pic today as I was having leftover soup because I totally flaked out and forgot to take a pic last night when I made it. I’m gonna blame that on hunger and St. Pattie’s Day wine! 🙂